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Journalism of Courage
Intending to crack the whip on rising ‘frivolous’ and ‘bogus’ PILs, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said time has come for slapping a penalty of Rs one lakh to deter these litigants after observing these petitions have become a ‘nuisance.’
PIL is no longer a public interest litigation but has taken a shape of “private interest litigation, publicity interest litigation or paisa income litigation,” a Bench comprising Justices H K Sema and Markandey Katju said.
“Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was for weaker section of society those who do not have money. It, however has become nuisance,” it said.
Justice Katju said time has come to curb the practice by imposing huge cost on petitioners for filing frivolous petitions which defeated the purpose for which it was evolved.
“There is a need for strict action otherwise people will not understand. Unless and untill we impose penalty of Rs one lakh people will not stop filing frivolous PILs,” he said.
The remarks came during the hearing of a bunch of PILs seeking guidelines on premature release of convicts serving life sentence in various jails across the country.
The Bench said that there are some genuine and good PILs and rest around 95 per cent are frivolous causing wastage of judicial time.
“We are engaged in doing frivolous work. We are unable to do regular work,” Justice Katju said recalling his experience as a judge of three High Courts.
“In the High Courts half the time goes in frivolous work,” he said adding that most of the PILs are “bogus” to which Justice Sema also agreed.
